DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE - Plans Review

Lead singer Ben Gibbard's songwriting has always been the underlying current running through all of DCFC's songs, and Plans is no different....full text After pledging its allegiance to the independent lifestyle only to hop aboard a major label, Death Cab for Cutie has a lot to prove on Plans, the band’s Atlantic Records debut. After all, months of “sellout” rumors circulated everywhere since the act departed Barsuk Records for the big leagues – now the proof is here. Did Death Cab sell itself out?...full text Plans is the fifth album by Death Cab for Cutie, yet in many ways it is an album of firsts. It's their first on a major label, the first with the same line-up as their previous record and the first since their appearance (and endless name checks) on smash teen drama, The OC. This combination of change, continuity and mainstream breakthrough could have led to a shift in musical direction and production, a stagnant reproduction of their last album or a dozen cynically made sure-fire pop hits designed to invade the charts. Which is it to be?...full text